02/22/2012

UN High Commissioner Celebrates 40 Years of Jacob Blaustein Institute at the Vanguard of Human Rights

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, experts, human rights defenders, and representatives of major international human rights organizations came together in New York City to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and to analyze the challenges currently faced by the High Commissioner. Addresses were delivered by Ms. Pillay; by Michael Ignatieff, scholar and former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada; by Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the US Department of State; and by Bertrand Ramcharan, formerly Deputy/Acting UN High Commissioner.

(UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay (left) participates in a question-and-answer session with JBI Director Felice Gaer at the JBI High Commissioner Conference. Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Convened on February 7 and 8 by the Jacob Blaustein Institute, in collaboration with the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, the conference, entitled The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Conscience for the World, explored the role of the High Commissioner; assessed the accomplishments of and challenges faced by the current and five previous High Commissioners; and recommended strategies to increase the High Commissioner’s effectiveness in preventing human rights violations in the future.

Several conference participants, including Navi Pillay, commended the key role played by JBI in pressing for and ensuring the creation of the High Commissioner post in 1993. Pillay also discussed the way her office’s efforts are advanced by UN human rights mechanisms composed of independent experts: “We have a number of … experts with us here today, including of course Felice Gaer [director of JBI], who was elected to the Committee Against Torture in 2000, and in that capacity, has made a profound contribution, in particular by ensuring that freedom from torture is also defined against the singular experiences of women and girls…”

The full text of the High Commissioner’s prepared remarks are available on her Office’s website.

The conference convened at a pivotal moment for human rights protection efforts at the United Nations. In his address, Michael Ignatieff noted that the High Commissioner’s office has developed its fact-finding capacity to the point where since mid-March 2011, it has been seen as the “gold standard” on reporting about human rights violations perpetrated by the Syrian government. At the same time, despite High Commissioner Pillay’s characterization of Syria’s conduct as constituting crimes against humanity and her call for the Security Council to refer it to the International Criminal Court, Russia and China have blocked action by the Council, and the government of Syria continues to commit gross human rights abuses with impunity. Ignatieff also highlighted a number of other serious challenges faced by the High Commissioner – including carrying out the post’s wide-ranging mandate in the face of perennially insufficient resources, maintaining the legitimacy of the post even when other components of the UN system act inappropriately or display bias, and determining which human rights issues to prioritize. He urged conference participants to devise strategies for addressing them, recognizing that there have been conflicts between the roles of the High Commissioner as insider politician in the UN and as an outsider and global spokesman for human rights.

(Michael Ignatieff, scholar and former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, delivers keynote remarks at the JBI conference. Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State, spoke of the qualities needed in a High Commissioner, particularly to raise the profile of the subject of human rights globally.

(Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State, delivers keynote remarks at the JBI Conference. Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Michael Hirschhorn, a member of the JBI Administrative Council, applauded the conference as a fitting tribute to his grandfather, Jacob Blaustein. Citing Blaustein’s 1963 address at Columbia University, in which he first proposed the creation of the High Commissioner post, Hirschhorn recalled Blaustein’s exhortation that ‘it is our duty to work for a system under which the rights of every person everywhere will be respected, honored and upheld in essence and in spirit, in principle and in practice.’“ Jonathan Fanton, Interim Director of Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, who opened the conference, reflected on the appropriateness of holding the conference in the former home of the Roosevelts, and recalled that Eleanor Roosevelt had emphasized that human rights must matter in “small places close to home” lest they lose their meaning.

(Michael Hirschhorn, JBI Administrative Council member and grandson of Jacob Blaustein, delivers opening remarks at the JBI Conference. Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Other panels examined the role of the High Commissioner in promoting the universality of human rights and in preventing and responding to human rights violations. Participants also addressed the High Commissioners’ specific treatment of the “hard cases” of Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, as well as the issue of terrorism, and made suggestions for future action.

The program for the JBI High Commissioner conference is available here.

Further information regarding the conference will be forthcoming on this site.

UN Human Rights Council Sessions

The 28th Session of the Human Rights Council took place in Geneva from March 2-27, 2015. The Council considered the human rights situation in a number of countries, among them Syria, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, and Burma. It also considered the reports of a number of special rapporteurs on thematic issues including the right to freedom of religion or belief, the prohibition against torture, and the situation of human rights defenders. At the conclusion of the session, the Council adopted 34 resolutions, two of which created new Special Procedures mandates: an Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights of persons with albinism and a Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. The next session of the Council will take place in June 2015.